2 December 2011
Senegal’s main opposition coalition has failed to agree on a single candidate to field against incumbent Abdoulaye Wade in next year’s presidential election, political sources said on Friday.
The 33-party Benno Siggil Senegaal (United to Boost Senegal) coalition had set up a committee months ago to decide on a single candidate to unseat the 85-year-old Wade in polls slated for February 2012.
The two frontrunners in the primary were former prime minister Moustapha Niasse and Socialist Party first secretary Ousmane Tanor Dieng.
As neither candidate agreed to support the other, the special committee had put the matter to a vote, which saw 19 out of the coalition’s 33 parties throw their weight behind Niasse, who heads the Alliance of the Forces of Progress.
After the result late Thursday, Niasse’s main rival challenged the decision and said he would stand for president regardless.
“I am still Benno Siggil Senegaal’s candidate. One camp is with Moustapha Niasse and another is backing me,” he said.
Two other party leaders in the fractious coalition had already declared their intention to contest the election independently: Macky Sall, another former prime minister who heads the Alliance for the Republic (APR), and Cheikh Bamba Dieye, leader of the Front for Socialism and Democracy (FSD).
More than a dozen smaller candidates have also thrown their hats in the ring but their applications have yet to be approved by the constitutional council.
Abdoulaye Wade was first elected for seven years in 2000 and reelected in 2007 for five years, after a constitutional reform shortened presidential terms.
The seven-year term was reintroduced in another constitutional amendment in 2008, prompting the opposition to argue that Wade’s fresh bid was illegal. – ANP/AFP
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